


Out of Frame

by FoxyWolfMeerkat



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Asking Out, F/M, Gender or Sex Swap, Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 17:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxyWolfMeerkat/pseuds/FoxyWolfMeerkat
Summary: Kyouya was very much surprised she saw Tamaki standing in front of her. Here he was, standing there asking for a dance.
Relationships: Ootori Kyouya/Suoh Tamaki
Kudos: 42
Collections: Hosts for the Holidays (2019)





	Out of Frame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Queen_Oval](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Oval/gifts).

Kyouya puts the finishing touches on her hair and takes a moment to judge. The updo is neat and ornate. It would have been faster to have gotten a hairstylist to do this, but this is cheaper and allows Kyouya quiet and privacy to think.

Satisfied, she leaves her private bathroom to sit on her bed. Soon enough Tachibana will have the car ready and either Aijima or Hotta would come fetch her.

Considering the upcoming event, Kyouya doesn't chide herself for the subject of her reflections. Tamaki. At length, René Tamaki Richard Suoh. Born de Grantaine. The bastard son of one of her father's favorite business partners. Yuzuru Suoh's only child.  
The lucky bastard.  
On meeting him, maybe even before that, she'd loathed him. An idiot who had the whole world handed to him on a platter because of circumstances outside his control.  
If Yuzuru wasn't so vehemently against the idea of arranging something for his son, Tamaki may even have gotten a fiancee on arriving in Japan.

Instead, Kyouya's father had to ask her to do it the hard way.

Her left fingers pinched the fabric of her comforter. Rubbing the gray blanket as she recalled the… _adventure_ that had been.  
Rather than proposing (a silly goal to expect from a middle school aged boy in hindsight), he declared her his best friend.

She hadn't as much appreciation for it at the time, but Tamaki had started treating her very specifically early on. Not quite like his typical behavior with girls and women. Not how he treated boys and other men either. Kyouya wishes she'd never noticed…

Abruptly, he'd unfolded before her. His borderline unbelievable musical talent. His sharp emotional intellect. Kyouya still didn't understand how or when, but he'd seen her soul- a spy in a fortress.

After that… Subtly but surely, she'd wound up like everyone else. At least she knew better than Ayame: Tamaki meant each and every dumb word out of his mouth. That, more than anything else, was what had sealed her fate.

Despite her father's wishes, she ceased her active efforts trying to win him over. Not for a lack of interest, rather the sudden guilt that came with using him like he was anyone else.  
Kyouya was valuable to anyone with an interest in the Ootori Group; Tamaki cared about romance bordering on fairy tales. Kyouya was under no delusion of being able to provide that.

Shaking her head just slightly to herself (having her hair done so ornately always took some adjusting to weight wise), Kyouya checked her watch. This item was the only thing not new to her outfit. Everything else had been picked by the twins.  
No wonder Haruhi got so annoyed when they played with them as though the honor student was a dress-up doll. It was demeaning, even if thy had amazing taste. Kyouya is just amazed they had the nerve to do it to her.

Shoes: Black, lovingly treated leather ankle height boots with wedge style heels.

Hosiery: White tights made of a thin but reasonably warm material Kyouya wasn't immediately familiar with.

Dress: Black, with occasional thick white stripes- curvy and asymmetrical. Silk. Meticulously fitted around much of her body, but becoming loose and flowing past her hips and past her elbows. The skirt reached her ankles, slits cut up to her knees at each side.

Accessories: The various pieces of fabric and decorative pins for her hair. Kyouya isn't sure she likes the stark white against her black hair but it matches the rest of the outfit. The last touch was a chandelier choker. Black silk base, and the 'chandelier' comprised of black pearls with a few white ones interspersed.

It's all lovely, but probably not something Kyouya would have picked out of her own volition.

Kyouya lets the ride to the Main Suoh Estate passes in silence. She's proud of him for finally winning over his grandmother. Tamaki has earned this party. And while unnecessary, it's nice to be asked to co-host with him. A minor challenge in that she's never been on the Estate before, but she has some time to get acquainted before guests arrive.

The staff lead her in initially, out from the cold and into what amounted to a small ballroom. Not unlike the one in the Hitachiin's home. The Ootori Estate had no such facilities. Larger gatherings like this had less overall business value than gatherings of a few with focus outside celebrating or entertainment. Networking could be done at other people's parties.

Tamaki was there, rushing to direct some last minute touches. More excited than stressed. Normal for him. At a glance, he seemed to be in his favorite white suit. As Kyouya approached the 'off' details became more apparent.  
The pink button up he typically preferred with it had been traded out with a black one. In fact, basically every instance where there should have been color got this treatment. Up and to the point where Kyouya had to conclude this was another, separate white suit.

With a scowl, she prodded the other. "Was this your idea?"

He turned to her with a bright smile that quickly turned confused. "The party?"

"No, I know _that_." Kyouya gestured between them, "The matching outfits?" It seemed like the kind of thing he'd do. She didn't even oppose! But he could have just said so rather than having the twins harass her.

"Hm? Oh, no the twins… …They did you too huh?"

"They did. ...We have more important things to worry about. Show me around?"

* * *

Kyouya does more socializing than dancing. It isn't that there _aren't_ men here, or even willing women, but none she cares that much about (excluding-). Just talking entertained more people at a time anyway. The natural progression of people and conversations take Kyouya all over the room.  
Maybe its design, maybe its happenstances, but near the end of the night she winds up at the center of the room.

And the lights go down.

Tamaki pulls the person she'd been talking to aside to come through. "I apologize miss. Might I cut in?" He offers up a rose as compensation and the woman swoons.

But then he isn't looking at her. He's looking at Kyouya. In front of Kyouya. Bowing to Kyouya, offering his hand-  
"May I have this last dance?"

The room seems so quiet, Kyouya isn't sure why she doesn't hear her own heartbeat. She isn't _nervous_, just… Taken off-guard. Not wanting to make Tamaki or herself look bad, she realizes she's already given a swift "Of course" before she's even fully processed the request. They move, pulled together with complete surety. Kyouya feels like it's not just their dancing experience helping them move together like running water.  
She can't hear the song, but she can smell his cologne. A purely self indulgent part of her hopes he can smell her perfume.

It should be a crime to look at someone so sweetly as he was looking at her now. In spite of the butterflies in her stomach, Kyouya never loses time with Tamaki. Time doesn't drag- it is infinite. His hand and hers together. His grip on her waist. The moments they pulled closer meaning more than those apart.

Kyouya had deduced that she couldn't fall harder, but moments like this made her really feel what that meant. The ache in her chest, head spinning, stomach lightening, extremities tingling: a laundry list of feelings she never dreamed she'd get to have, let alone get practice ignoring.

And all in vain too.

In the same motion of the last spin of their dance, Tamaki pulls her in tight. He kisses her and it is soft and warm and better than any romance Fuyumi once prattled about. And to think she'd thought she'd spend a lifetime faking this for whatever power she could get her hands on. There's a storm of cheering around them. It follows the air into her lungs. Her hand squeezes his shoulder to tug him in further.

_'Fuck it.'_

Kyouya doesn't care everyone can see. Tamaki is honest, she'd trust him in all odds. If he wanted her, she was his. Because he would be hers too. A team. Not benefactor and commodity.

When they slow to a complete stop, Kyouya still feels infected by that contagious energy. She should show more decorum but Tamaki barely cares about such things anyway.  
"I love you."

Tamaki's face turns cherry red. Every inch, just as she'd hoped. The crowd nearest them howls louder. And louder still when he dives in to kiss her again. And again and again. The urge to retreat to somewhere calm and private sinks in. Familiar but for the never-so-strong-as-now desire to take Tamaki with her.

However, they do have a party to finish hosting. Kyouya will not skirt her responsibilities no matter how enticing the temptation.

* * *

The remainder of the party was a vexing combination of assertions that people 'knew it', congratulations, laments over how lucky Kyouya was (everything Kyouya had was because of things she'd done. Not _luck_), and tasteless jokes about Kyouya bribing or threatening Tamaki 'into his position'.  
At least Tamaki's admonishments of said 'jokes' weren't at all quiet. Chivalrous of him as usual.

Tamaki took care of the stragglers after giving Kyouya instructions for finding an out of the way sitting room. Smaller, nicely lit, and the quietest place she's been since arriving at the Suoh Estate.  
If anyone else had so much as asked her away she'd be insulted. Tamaki wasn't 'getting her out of the way', he just recognized that she was irritated and in need of space to think.

He _kissed_ her. Kyouya needed to analyze. When did this start for him? Not easy to decipher when the man treated everyone like gold.

…

A total loss. Damn.

The twins may have known. Was Kyouya just blind or did Tamaki tell them? That she could see. Over-excited from the plot he'd made for his party- their dance, he blabbed to the twins. Who then decided to leave their fingerprint on the moment. If the twins knew, the others probably knew. Overly careful, well behind the scenes she'd noticed, how much of her nigh had been guided along?

Perhaps it would be best to accept that she'd never know and move on. If Tamaki hadn't realized he'd tipped off twins then he wouldn't have known about the extra help either. It was also possible he told and didn't ask for help but that wasn't really like him.  
Kyouya would settle for asking Tamaki.

Lacking the little grey cloth she normally used to clean other glasses, Kyouya improving with the skirt of her dress. Listening silently for Tamaki's approach.

He knocks gently before coming in when he arrives. Rushing over to sit at Kyouya's side. Scooping up her hands and looking smitten. It was recognizable in a way Kyouya didn't particularly appreciate. "I love you too. For so long now. Please marry me?"

"I'm not one of your guests." She tugged her hands away.

He balked and panicked, scrambling off the couch to kneel at her feet. "Of course not! I mean it!" Tamaki fumbled a ring box out of his suit pocket. "Look, see?!"

Her father would love this.  
Kyouya adjusted her glasses. "Isn't this a bit fast?"

Tamaki pulled the box back slowly. Blinking his big blue eyes at her in confusion and wonder. "I… thought you wouldn't want to date… You don't think its… I dunno… frivolous?"

"You are the definition of frivolous."

He pouted, "That's not the same at all!"

"...I would like…" Kyouya looked down at her lap. After a lifetime of practicality- even after helping Tamaki run his club- it seemed wrong to admit to wanting to put something prestigious off. Though this isn't the kind of prestige she's ever given a damn about.  
"I would like not to be reduced to 'Tamaki Suoh's fiancee'. Not that you can do anything about that."

Tamaki's attentive, hopefully that had formed as she spoke faded into a frown. "Do you… not want this?"

She reached out to comb her fingers through his fluffy blond hair. "I do want it. I'm just… as frustrated as usual that I can't get everything I want."

"Oh… Well… I don't know about your father or anyone else… But I think you can do anything."

She grabbed him by the arms after he finished speaking. Urging Tamaki back up to her level. Kissing him softly.  
"I love the ridiculous things you say with such conviction."

He hummed happily. "Does that mean I can be your boyfriend?"

"I'll say yes." Another tug and he was back to sitting next to her.

His lovely smile faded as he got distracted. Looking up at her hair. "It's messier now."

"Yes, that happens."

He reached over, going for her hair. Her hand snapping up to grab his wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"...Can I help?"

"Help with?"

"Putting your hair back down."

"…" She had assumed she was going to have to fight with it all on her own. There were precious few hairstylists available at this time and while some of the night staff probably could help, she didn't specifically know who. "And how am I supposed to know you're not going to end up tugging my hair out?"

"I'll be gentle, I promise!"

With a sigh, Kyouya let Tamaki's wrist go. His other hand quickly came up to join it. Feeling through the various decorations in her hair. Easing out pins first. Finding the ties of ribbons and slowly undoing them. One by one, her head felt lighter. As it gets looser, Tamaki starts gently pressing his fingers through her hair.

It feels rather nice. And he has proven himself to be exceptionally gentle. There were a few tugs, but mostly small, sharp feelings related to where her hair had gotten tied into things.

"...Would it be too dramatic of me to request to dance with you more?"

Tamaki stood smoothly and pulled Kyouya up along with him. "Absolutely not. I suppose I'm a little surprised… How would you like to dance darling Kyouya?"

"Slow and close to you. I'm too tired for anything more energetic."

"Well do try not to fall sleep on me." Tamaki smiled playfully as he teased. Pulling her in to press chest to chest with him.

"Tsk. Not that tired." Kyouya pinched his side in revenge. Smirking at his tiny yelp and giggles.  
As they started swaying together, she rested her head on the blond's shoulder. The setting, lower lights and quiet and everyone else gone… Dreamy. Kyouya isn't one to doubt herself but that nagging worry this wasn't real crept in.  
She squeezed Tamaki's hand and he squeezed back. "I can't believe you were ready to _propose_ no more than half an hour after our first kiss. Mad man."

"Mm. It seemed like a good idea at the time! ...I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with you however."

"...Sounds like you. I'll work on the rest of my life tomorrow. May as well enjoy tonight for everything it is."

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this was one of my favorite prompts so thank you for putting it up!


End file.
